Vagabov himself was killed in a shootout with security forces in Dagestan last week, according to local authorities.

Security forces were searching the mountains outside the village of Gubden on Saturday for the group's remaining members, Dagestan police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov told the AP.

Dagestan is part of Russia's volatile North Caucasus region where authorities are battling separatist fighters and where shootings and bomb blasts are a near-daily occurrence.

Kabardino-Balkaria is seen as more stable than the Caucasus regions of Chechnya and Dagestan but has still seen mounting violence in the last months.

More than 30 fighters have been killed in raids in North Caucasus this month and a number of "terrorist attacks" have been prevented, Alexander Bortnikov, the federal security chief, told president Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday in comments broadcast on state-run television.

Rights activists say the attacks have been provoked in part by extrajudicial killings, torture and kidnappings allegedly carried out by police under the pretext of fighting terrorism.